Beef Cow Delivers Ninth Set Of Twins

Beef Cow Delivers Ninth Set Of Twins LIVESTOCK Beef 20-4-28 A beef cow owned by Arnold and Lois Bredewater, New Braunfels, Texas, gave birth to her ninth set of twins last fall. "Bessie", a Chianina crossbred, first gave birth in 1985 to a single calf. Since then she's had only twins - nine sets in a row. "We thought it was neat when she had her first two sets of twins,'" says Bredewater. "And then she had three. And then she had four. Pretty soon, people were gambling on it. "I don't have a scrapbook of Bessie's offspring because I never expected her streak of twins to continue. Each year I thought, she's never going to have another set, and then sure enough she did. If we'd had any idea of what was to follow, we'd have taken movies. I can't submit her to the Guinness Book of Records because I never got a certificate of evidence of the births." About one of every 200 beef cow births is twins, according to animal scientists. Once a cow has twins there's a pretty good chance she will have more. The father of the first eight sets of twins was a 3/4 Simmental, 1/4 Angus cross. The father of the ninth set was a Beefmaster and Angus cross. Bredewater raised 14-year-old Bessie from a calf. "I plan to keep her for at least two or three more years. Mothers of twin calves often can't produce enough milk. But that hasn't been a problem for Bessie." Twins seem to be a tradition in the Bredewater family. Arnold is an identical twin, and his sons married twins. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Arnold Bredewater, 2 Royal Crest, New Braunfels, Texas 78130 (ph 210 606-1408).

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